Privacy notice

Privacy Notice

Last revised: 22 August 2023. To see prior version, click here.

Who Can I Contact in Case of Questions?

See Legal Information or send an email to dataprotection@synpulse.com.

Privacy Summary

Synpulse Holding AG and its subsidiaries are the entities within Synpulse Network are providing this Privacy Notice and are referred to herein as “we”, “us”, or “our”. Synpulse is committed to protecting your information by handling it responsibly and safeguarding it using appropriate technical, administrative, and physical security measures.

This privacy notice below explains what information we gather about you, what we use it for and who we share it with (the “Privacy Notice”). It also sets out your rights and who you can contact for more information or queries.

Information About You that We Process

We may process information about you that: (i) you provide to us, (ii) that we obtain from third parties or (iii) that is publicly available. This information may include your name, age, gender, date of birth and contact details. It may also include ‘sensitive’ or ‘special categories’ of personal data, such as dietary requirements or mobility information. For a more detailed description of the information about you that we may process, please see below.

How We Use Information About You

We collect and process information about you and/or your business to enable us, Synpulse Holding AG and any if its subsidiaries’ to:

provide our services to you;

to enable us to provide you with information that we think may be of interest to you; and

to meet our legal or regulatory obligations.

For a more detailed description of how we use information about you, please see below.

When we send you information we think you might be interested in, you have the right to unsubscribe at any time by contacting us as set out here, or by following the unsubscribe instructions in our communications.

Sharing and Transferring Your Information

We may share information about you across the Synpulse Network, and with some third parties. For more information please see below.

We may transfer some information about you to countries outside the European Economic Area that have less stringent data protection laws. When we do this, we will make sure your information remains adequately protected. For more information please see below.

Your Rights

Your rights under data protection laws include the right to:

request copies of your data;
request correction of your data;
request erasure of your data;
object to us processing your data; and
ask us to restrict the processing.

For more information about your privacy rights please see below.

If you have any questions or comments about privacy issues, or wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please write to Head of Data Protection Officers, Synpulse Holding AG, Sonnenbergstrasse 19, CH-6052 Hergiswil, Switzerland, or email dataprotection@synpulse.com.

Scroll down to see the privacy notice in full to take you to the more detailed sections of the notice.

Who this privacy statement applies to and what it covers
What personal data we collect
Personal data provided by or about third parties
How we use your personal data
The legal grounds we use for processing personal data
Sharing your personal data
Transferring your personal data
Protecting your personal data
How long we keep your personal data for
Your rights
Sending you marketing information
Contact
Changes to this privacy statement

In this statement:

“Data Protection Legislation” means (i) the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection of 19 June 1992 (FDPA), (ii) the New Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) of 01 September 2023, and (iii) the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR); together with all other applicable legislation relating to privacy or data protection and including any statute or statutory provision which amends, extends, consolidates or replaces the same.

EU-US and Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework

Synpulse participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework*. Click here to learn more.

*We will not rely on the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework or the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework until they enter into force, but we adhere to their required commitments in anticipation of their doing so

“Synpulse Network” refers to one or more Synpulse entities, organized as a Swiss privately held group of legal entities held by one holding company. Synpulse Holding AG is a company registered in Switzerland with registered number CHE-103.557.601 and registered office at Sonnenbergstrasse 19, 6052 Hergiswil, Switzerland.

“Process” means any operation performed on information about you, including to collect, record, organize, structure, store, alter, use, transfer, destroy or otherwise make available.

1. Who this privacy notice applies to and what it covers

This privacy notice applies to Synpulse Holding AG with registered office address Sonnenbergstrasse 19, 6052 Hergiswil, Switzerland, and the entities we own or control (“Synpulse”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your information openly and transparently.

This privacy notice explains how we will collect, handle, store and protect information about you when:

providing services to you or our clients;

you use our Website; or

performing any other activities that form part of the operation of our business.

When we refer to “our website” or “this website”, we mean the specific webpage of synpulse.com and any webpage with such ending and specific webpages which contain:

synpulse.com

Our website comprises various global, country, regional and practice-specific information. All of this is provided by Synpulse Holding AG or one of its subsidiaries or their related entities (collectively, the “Synpulse Network”). To learn more about Synpulse, its member firms, and their related entities, please see Legal Information.

This privacy notice also contains information about when we share your personal data with other members of the Synpulse Network and other third parties (for example, our service providers).

In this privacy notice, your information is sometimes called “personal data”. We may also refer to “processing” your data, which includes handling, collecting, protecting and storing it.

Germany/Europe specific:
If you provide us with information via the Synpulse website or when using Synpulse apps, you agree, in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (a), 7 of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), that we may use your personal data in the context of the principles laid down below. This also applies to a possibly required transfer of personal data to foreign member firms of the Synpulse Network. Please note in this regard that certain links (electronic links) on this website leads to websites of third parties, which, because of their national autonomy and independence as well as potential differences in local law, are not subject to the content of this privacy notice. Synpulse accepts no liability for the content and / or data protection treatment of data put on these other websites.

2. What personal data we collect

We may collect, record and use your personal data in physical and electronic form, and will hold, use and otherwise process that data in line with the Data Protection Legislation and as set out in this statement.

When we provide services to you or our clients and perform due diligence checks in connection with our services (or discuss possible services we might provide), we will process personal data about you. We may also collect personal data from you when you use this website.

We may process your data because:

you give it to us (for example, in a form on our website);
other people lawfully give it to us (for example, your employer or adviser, or third-party service providers that we use to help operate our business); or
it is publicly available.

We may process personal data from you because we observe or infer that data about you from the way you interact with us or others. For example, to improve your experience of this website and to make sure that it is working effectively. For example, we (or our service providers) may use cookies (small text files stored in a user’s browser) or web beacons to collect personal data. More information on how we use these and other tracking technologies – and how you can control them – can be found in our cookie notice.

The personal data we process may include your:

name, gender, age and date of birth;
contact information, such as address, email, and mobile phone number;
country of residence;
lifestyle and social circumstances (for example, your hobbies);
family circumstances (for example, your marital status and dependents);
employment and education details (for example, the organisation you work for, your job title and your education details);
financial and tax-related information (for example your income, investments and tax residency);
postings or messages on any blogs, forums, platforms, wikis or social media applications and services that we provide (including with third parties);
IP address, browser type and language, your access times;
information in any complaints you make ;
details of how you use our products and services;
CCTV footage and other information we collect when you access our premises; and
details of how you like to interact with us, and other similar information.

The personal data we collect may also include so called ‘sensitive’ or ‘special categories’ of personal data, such as details about your:

dietary requirements (for example, when Synpulse would like to provide you with lunch during a meeting);
health (for example, so that we can make it easy for you to access our buildings, products and services); and
sexual orientation (for example, if you provide us with details of your spouse or partner).

We may also process personal data relating to ethnic or racial origin (for example, any multicultural networks you belong to), or about your political opinions (inferred from information you give us about political associations you belong to or have donated to).

We will typically seek separate permission from you in writing to process these special categories of personal data.

If you choose not to provide, or object to us processing, the information we collect (see section 10 below), we may not be able to process your instructions or continue to provide some or all of our services to you or our client.

3. Personal data provided by or about third parties

When our client or another third party gives us personal data about you, we make sure they have complied with the relevant privacy laws and regulations. This may include, for example, that the client or other third party has informed you of the processing and has obtained any necessary permission for us to process that information as described in this privacy notice.

If any information you give us relates to a third party (such as a spouse, financial dependent, or joint account holder), by providing us with such personal data you confirm that, in line with the above provisions, you have obtained any necessary permission to use it or are otherwise permitted to give it to us.

4. How we use your personal data

We process information about you and/or your business to enable us and other members of the Synpulse Network to provide our services to you, and to meet our legal or regulatory obligations.

Some of your personal data may be used for other business purposes. Below are some examples.

Use of personal data to provide services to our clients

We will use your personal data to provide you or our clients or other third parties with services, and this includes using your personal data in correspondence relating to those services. That correspondence may be with:

you;
other third parties or other members of the Synpulse Network;
our service providers; or
competent authorities.

We may also use your personal data to conduct due diligence checks relating to the services.

Because we provide a wide range of services to our clients or other third parties, the way we use personal data in relation to our services also varies. For example, we might use personal data about:

a client’s employees to help the client improve its efficiency in handling such data; or
a client’s employees and customers in the course of conducting a system implementation (or similar activity) for a client; or

Use of personal data for other activities that form part of the operation of our business

We may also use your personal data in connection with:

legal or regulatory requirements;
requests and communications from competent authorities;
client account opening and other administrative tasks;
financial accounting, invoicing and risk analysis;
relationship management, which may involve:

(a) sending you thought leadership or details of our products and services;

(b) contacting you for feedback on services;

(c) sending you event invitations; and

(d) other marketing or research purposes;

recruitment and business development, which may involve:

(a) the use of testimonials from a client’s employees as part of our recruitment and business development materials (with that employee’s permission); and

(b) the use of third-party data sources to help us verify and improve the information we hold about key business relationships with individuals;

services we receive from our professional advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and consultants;
investigating or preventing security incidents; or
protecting our rights and those of our clients.

Use of personal data collected via our website

In addition to the above, we may also use your personal data collected via our website:

to manage and improve our website;
to tailor the content of our website to give you a more personalized experience;
to draw your attention to information about our products and services that may be of interest to you; or
to manage and respond to any request you submit through our website.

5. The legal grounds we use for processing personal data

We are required by law to set out in this privacy notice the legal grounds on which we rely in order to process your personal data. We rely on one or more of the following lawful grounds:

you have explicitly agreed to us processing your information for a specific reason;
the processing is necessary to perform the agreement we have with you or to take steps to enter into an agreement with you;
the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation we have such as keeping records for tax purposes or providing information to a public body or law enforcement agency; or
the processing is necessary for the purposes of a legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party, which might be:

(a) to provide our services to you or our clients and other third parties and ensure that our client engagements are well-managed;

(b) to prevent fraud;

(c) to protect our business interests;

(d) to ensure that complaints are investigated;

(e) to evaluate, develop or improve our services or products; or

(f) to keep you or our clients informed about relevant products and services and provide you with information, unless you have indicated at any time that you do not wish us to do so.

To the extent that we process any special categories of data relating to you for any of the purposes outlined above, we will do so because:

you have given us your explicit consent to process that data;
we are required by law to process that data in order to ensure we meet our ‘know your client’ and ‘anti-money laundering’ obligations (or other legal obligations imposed on us);
the processing is necessary to carry out our obligations under employment, social security or social protection law;
the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
you have made the data manifestly public.

Please note that in certain circumstances it may be still lawful for us to continue processing your information even where you have withdrawn your consent, if one of the other legal bases described above is applicable.

Germany/Europe specific:
In respect of personal data of data subjects resident in a EU country, legal basis for processing of data described above (to the extent such data is to be considered personal data) are:

Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests; the legitimate interests to use such data arises from the fact that without such data the website cannot be accessed by the users or that we cannot answer your information requests without processing the respective data);
in case your information request aims at a (potential) conclusion of a contract with us - Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. b GDPR (fulfilment of contract and pre-contractual measures);
section 2.4 is Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. c GDPR (legal obligation);

6. Sharing your personal data

In connection with any of the purposes outlined in the “How we use your personal data?” section above, we may disclose details about you to:

other members of the Synpulse Network or third parties that provide services or online platforms to us and/or the Synpulse Network;
competent authorities (including courts and authorities regulating us and other members of the Synpulse Network);
your employer and/or its advisers, or your advisers;
anyone to whom we may transfer our rights and/or obligations under the Terms of Use;
any other person or organisation after a restructure, sale or acquisition of any member of the Synpulse Network, as long as they use your information for the same purposes we did;
credit reference agencies or other organisations that help us make credit decisions and reduce the incidence of fraud; and
other third parties that reasonably require access to personal data relating to you.

Our website hosts various blogs, forums, wikis and other social media applications or services that allow you to share content with other users (collectively “Social Media Applications”). Any personal data that you contribute to these social media applications can be read, collected and used by other users of the application. We have little or no control over these other users, so any information you contribute to these social media applications might not be handled in line with this privacy notice.

7. Transferring your personal data

Information we hold about you may be transferred to other countries (which may include countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”):

where we do business (Click here to see the list of countries where we do business);
which are linked to your engagement with us;
from where you regularly receive or transmit information; or
where our third parties conduct their activities.

Such countries may have less stringent privacy laws than the EEA or Switzerland, so any information held can become subject to such laws and disclosure requirements, including disclosure to governmental bodies, regulatory agencies and private persons. In addition, several countries have agreements under which information is exchanged with other countries for law enforcement, tax and other purposes.

When we, or our permitted third parties, receive or transfer your personal data outside the EEA, we will impose contractual obligations on the recipients of that data to protect your personal data to the standard required in the EEA. We may also require the recipient to subscribe to international frameworks intended to enable secure data sharing.

We may also transfer your personal data when:

the transfer is to a country deemed to provide adequate protection of your personal data by the European Commission; or
where you have consented to the transfer.

If your personal data is transferred outside the EEA in other circumstances (for example, because we have to by law), we will make sure it remains adequately protected.

We may share non-personal, anonymized and aggregated information with third parties for several purposes, including data analytics, research, submissions, thought leadership and promotional activity.

8. Protecting your personal data

We use a range of measures to ensure we keep your personal data secure, accurate and up to date. These include:

education and training to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy obligations when handling personal data;
administrative and technical controls to restrict access to personal data to a ‘need to know’ basis;
technological security measures, including fire walls, encryption and anti-virus software; and
physical security measures, such as security passes to access our premises.

The transmission of data over the internet (including by e-mail) is never completely secure. So, although we use appropriate measures to try to protect personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to us or by us.

9. How long we keep your personal data for

We seek to ensure that we only keep your personal data for the longest of:

the period necessary for the relevant activity or services;
any retention period that is required by law; or
the period in which litigation or investigations might arise in respect of the services.

10. Your rights

You have various rights in relation to your personal data. In particular, you have a right to:

obtain confirmation that we are processing your personal data and request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
be informed about the processing of your personal data (i.e. for what purposes, what types, to what recipients it is disclosed, storage periods, any third-party sources from where it was obtained, confirmation of whether we undertake automated decision-making, including profiling, and the logic, significance and envisaged consequences);
ask that we update the personal data we hold about you, or correct such personal data that you think is incorrect or incomplete;
ask that we delete personal data that we hold about you, or restrict the way in which we use such personal data; withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data (to the extent such processing is based on previously obtained consent);
receive a copy of the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit such personal data to another party (to the extent the processing is based on consent or a contract);
ask us to stop or start sending you marketing messages at any time by using the contact details in section 12 below; and
object to our processing of your personal data.

If you would like to access or see a copy of your personal data, you must ask us in writing. We will endeavour to respond within a reasonable period, and in any event within one month in line with Data Protection Legislation. We will comply with our legal obligations about your rights as a data subject.

To help us ensure that your information is up to date, let us know if any of your personal details change using the contact details set out in section 12.

You may also use the contact details in section 12 if you wish to make a complaint relating to your privacy.

11. Sending you marketing information

We and other members of the Synpulse Network may use your information from time to time to inform you by letter, telephone, email and other electronic methods about products and services (including those of third parties) that may be of interest to you.

You may, at any time, ask us and/or other members of the Synpulse Network not to send marketing information to you by following the unsubscribe instructions in communications from us, or contacting us in the way described in section 12 below.

12. Contact

If you wish to exercise any of the rights relating to your information set out above, or if you have any questions or comments about privacy issues, or you wish to raise a complaint about how we are using your information you can contact us in the following ways:

writing to Head of Data Protection Officers, Synpulse Holding AG, Sonnenbergstrasse 19, 6052 Hergiswil, Switzerland, or
sending an email to dataprotection@synpulse.com

13. Changes to this privacy notice

We may modify or amend this privacy notice from time to time.

When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will amend the revision date at the top of this page. The modified or amended privacy notice will apply from that date. We encourage you to review this notice periodically to remain informed about how we are protecting your information.